Running For Mayor - Not

1- City would turn over police/fire dispatch to the Sheriff, provided the following was met:

A- City-County HR representatives would survey other similar dispatch centers, with similar traffic load, regarding pay and fringe benefits. With the adjustment for the cost of living the establishment for the pay for the dispatching department would be set. However, the pay and fringe benefits could not be lowered from what is being paid by Allen County.

B- Any reduction of supervisors within the dispatch center would have to be done based on a fair evaluation. This may require the hiring of an outside firm to make sure the best person remained a supervisor. Any reduction in head count would be based purely on skill level.

C- Annually Fort Wayne Police Chief and the Sheriff would be required to report to joint meeting with Allen County Commissioners and the City Council.


The reasoning is simple on many fronts. Everyone in Allen County pays for the operation of the Sheriff dispatch center. Every voter in Allen County votes for the Sheriff. All county voters vote for the Commissioners.

With one dispatch center the manpower, equipment and technology can be best used. If a terrorist attack comes, a manufacturing plant explodes, or a tanker truck blows up the citizens could careless where the aid comes from, time is the only factor.

If a Fort Wayne Police Officer or Allen County Deputy Sheriff gets shot or has a problem with criminal there should not be even a ten second delay in getting them help. The glass wall between the city and county dispatch centers should not be a reason an officer to die.


2- Economic Development

A- Only full time members of this department would be appointed to any other economic boards within the county, region, or state.

B- An employee would be assigned to verify companies receiving tax incentives for equipment, buildings, and employees. This would be done twice annually by CPA certified statements, prepared at the companies cost, to be delivered to the city.

C- Annually, the verifying person would make site visits to review pertinent data to make sure the company is still in compliance.

D- Adjust taxes due for companies failing to meet what they agreed to when receiving the tax incentives.

E- Seek out the top Economic Development person in the country. Pay them a fair price for their talent but provide them with financial incentives for bringing new companies to Fort Wayne. Incentives would be based on number of employees, annual payroll, tax dollars generated, and the number of local residents are employed. The employed residents would be based on percentage of total payroll.

3- Public Safety

A- All patrol sergeants would carry tassers.

B- All undercover agents would be equipped with the new personal tassers that are available.

C- Seek corporate support to expand the PAL program.

D- Hire a full time psychiatrist to work with officers and be part of the swat team.

E- Teach all patrol officers how to recover fingerprints. Equip each patrol officer with the equipment to perform such.

F- School resource officers would seek to learn the identify of people hosting underage drinking parties and have the police raid such parties.

G- Have an existing Deputy Chief to include reviewing with the Allen County Prosecutor office all felony cases where charges where reduced or plea bargained down.

H- Train and with working exercises, volunteer civilians to perform search operations for missing or lost people. A small group of these trained volunteers would be assigned to an officer so a large area could be quickly searched. An example would be having six volunteers to each officer. Say there was five officers assigned to the search. It would result in 30 people carrying out an organized controlled search.

I- If Indiana law allows, have the city issue claims against people and their insurance companies for services the city extends if the person is the cause of accident on a locally controlled street. This would apply only to people living outside the city limits of Fort Wayne.


4- 311 Service

A- Continue to expand it

B- Develop FAQ that the various departments face daily and to compile the information into a computer database. It would allow call takers to provide much of information to the public without forwarding the call to the department. This database would also be available to the public via the Internet.

5- General

A- During the first year have every person in city government write there own job description based on what they actually do. This could lead to reduction in the need of temporary/part time help. People could be moved from one department to another during sick leave, vacations, or work overload.

B- Review standardizing software used by the various departments. Curtailing the use of software that requires update contracts be part of the purchase agreement. Hire an Information Technology officer that would oversee all computer software, hardware, and networking within city government. This would lead to standardization, lower cost of hardware, and the need of custom software.

C- Review the use of outside consultants. It appears nearly any task the city undertakes it hires outside consultants. If the city needs to add some professional people to city payroll to save over paying outside consultants then it needs to be done. If outside consultants are needed, then companies based in Fort Wayne and the work will be done by Fort Wayne residents should be allowed to be over the minimum bid by some percentage.

D- If Fort Wayne is going to extend sewer and water service to a new development, the developer will need to have the area annexed before the development receives the utilities. The effective day of the annexation could be set for five years or so down the road.

E- The City look into including in any new contract with other cities or towns the service cost equal to what other large private commercial customer pays. New contracts would need to provide the city to recover all capitol costs if the contract is terminated before said costs are recovered.

F- Form a drug and gang task force of officers. They would work with effected local community leaders. Both sides would learn from one another and help in cleaning up our community. Twice a year the Mayor would meet with these two groups.

Of course I am not running for Mayor.